Facing continued criticism from teaching assistants over what they say are unfairly low salaries — wages they also say were lowered without warning this year — the Springs School District has begun negotiating raises with the teaching assistants’ union, a year ahead of the usual schedule, while also performing a full audit of employee payroll.
Teaching assistants (T.A.s) at Springs start at a salary of $23,580 plus benefits, which is below what New York State considers “poverty line” earnings in 2023 ($25,142 for a single-person household). By way of comparison, a T.A. in the East Hampton School District starts at $36,319, more than $13,000 higher than a Springs T.A., according to research performed by Margarette Doyle, a T.A. who is also a parent of two Springs students.
During an Oct. 10 school board workshop, a group of T.A.s stood up to press board members and administrators on why their wages were decreased this year without warning. A large crowd of school employees and teachers showed up in support. While board members insisted that salary cuts had not taken place, the T.A.s maintained that it had in fact happened.
“All of what you want for the children, we want too — but we, the T.A.s, need to be paid a living wage,” Ms. Doyle said on Oct. 10. “For too long, we have been underpaid for the hard work we do. We need our pay to be fair and equitable . . . otherwise the hemorrhaging of T.A.s from the Springs School will continue.”
Debra Winter, the district superintendent, said during Tuesday’s meeting that the salary audit concerns “every single staff member that’s been paid in the last three years.” By text message yesterday, she said the T.A.s had been overpaid.
“There was an error made,” she said. Once it was discovered, “it could not continue. . . . It’s very unfortunate and not the way I wanted to start the school year off.” She declined to discuss the matter further because of the ongoing labor negotiations and payroll audit.
School records show Ms. Doyle was appointed by the school board in December 2021 at a salary of $25,330 plus benefits. She said this week she has a letter from the district stating her salary this year was $26,253, but that that has since been cut by $2,199.
School records also show that Jessica Megginson, another T.A., was approved on Sept. 6, 2022, for a salary of $25,929 plus benefits. That represented a raise over her previous salary of $25,330, which had been approved by the board on Feb. 15, 2022. She said on Oct. 10 that this year, $2,500 had been removed from her annual pay rate without warning.
“I was never overpaid,” Ms. Megginson said. “I was hired by the board of education at that rate, and I was deducted with no notice, no negotiation, and no choice.”
Barbara Dayton, the school board president, said on Oct. 10 that the board is taking the T.A.s’ assertions “very seriously.” During a meeting on Tuesday this week, Ms. Dayton said “it’s being looked into.”
“When we have those results available, we will be able to explain” what happened, she said, declining to publicly discuss the salary situation because “we have contract negotiations going on with them right now.”
Asked by a parent, Summer Romeo, whether the decrease in T.A. salaries was triggered by the annual external audit, the results of which were presented Tuesday by an external auditing firm, the EFPR Group, Ms. Winter said it was not.
Jeffrey Jones, a director of the EFPR Group, said the audit yielded an “unmodified opinion” of the district’s finances, which he described as “a good, clean opinion to receive.” The district’s accounting estimates “were reasonable and supported,” he said.
There was one issue uncovered — that “the district’s accounting records did not accurately reflect certain employee salaries” — which did not impact the overall findings, Mr. Jones said.
Elite Athletes Lauded
John King, a gym teacher and the district’s athletic director, on Tuesday presented certificates to three Springs School eighth-grade athletes who were called up to play on East Hampton High School teams during the fall season.
Landon Pitts finished the junior varsity golf season with a 9-1 record. Gabriella Montes started every varsity girls soccer game as a defender. Lucy Knight competed in the 100-meter backstroke and 200 and 500-meter freestyle categories on the varsity swimming team, qualifying for tomorrow’s league swim tournament.
“These are all great athletes. A lot of them do multiple sports in our school,” Mr. King said. “It’s a very rare thing to have so many students up at the high school level. This doesn’t happen a lot, especially when you have to combine with Montauk and East Hampton.”